414 ETHNOLOGY. 



four skeletons; in the third, three; in the fourth, four; and in the fifth, 

 not a bone was found. Several pieces of arrow-heads and some very- 

 hard pottery were found. Some of the pottery found in these mounds 

 was ornamented in a manner that indicated some skill and appreciation 

 of order iu arrangement. The ornamented pottery was found in the 

 mound from which the Busse cranium was taken. This mound is 12 

 feet in height, and 60 in diameter at the base, and nearly the same on 

 the top. 



The skeletons in all these mounds were found from one to four feet 

 below the surface. The bones nearest the surface were invariably in the 

 best state of preservation, while those at or near the bottom were com- 

 pletely decomposed. In some cases, the form and appearance were natu- 

 ral, but the moment the earth was removed from them, and an attempt was 

 made to remove them, they fell into dust. Others presented the appear- 

 ance and consistence of soft chalk, a slight pressure between the fingers 

 causing them to crumble. 



I have opened two mounds in Vincennes recently. The first is 110 

 feet in circumference at base, 45 feet diameter east and west, 6 feet 

 high. A trench 4 feet wide was cut more than half across it, extend 

 ing to 1 foot below the base of the mound. It was composed of the 

 ordinary surface-loam to a depth of 6 feet, where a layer of very 

 soft tenacious grayish clay was reached, which was only 3 inches in 

 thickness, and rested immediately upon the top of the ground. This 

 layer of clay formed the base of both these city-mounds, as it did of all 

 the mounds examined in Illinois. There was nothing of interest found 

 in either of them ; no bones or pottery, ashes, coal, or relics of any kind. 

 These mounds are near the one described by William Pidgeon in 1867, 

 in which many bones were found. 



Although the mounds in and around Vincennes have so far furnished 

 no interesting relics or important contributions to science, yet some 

 doubtful questions have been solved, with a fair probability of a solu- 

 tion being given to other problems, which may prove of some value to 

 ethnology. The artificial origin of our large mounds has been fully 

 demonstrated, which has heretofore been denied by some and doubted 

 by many. It is certain that the material of which the large mound is 

 composed is different from any in the neighborhood, and thus the shells 

 found in the large mound belong to a warm climate, which indicates 

 either that the mound was constructed when the locality enjoyed a 

 warmer climate than at present, or that they were brought from the 

 south. The study of these facts may lead to a solution of some diificult 

 and obscure questions. By carefully examining the calcinated clay in 

 the large mound, a question about which there is some controversy 

 may be settled, as to whether these burned-clay structures are for sacrifi- 

 cial altars or cremation-purposes. That the age of these mounds can 

 and will be determined by scientific investigations, I think very prob- 



